Stay Interesting: I Don't Always Tell Stories About My Life, but When I Do They're True and Amazing

by Jonathan Goldsmith

Overview

What makes a life truly interesting? Is it the people you meet? The risks you take? The adventures you remember?

Jonathan Goldsmith has many answers to that question. For years he was a struggling actor in New York and Los Angeles, with experiences that included competing for roles with Dustin Hoffman, getting shot by John Wayne, drinking with Tennessee Williams, and sailing the high seas with Fernando Lamas, never mind romancing many lovely ladies along the way.

However, it wasn’t all fun and games for Jonathan. Frustrated with his career, he left Hollywood for other adventures in business and life. But then, a fascinating opportunity came his way—a chance to star in a new campaign for Dos Equis beer. A role he was sure he wasn’t right for, but he gave it a shot all the same. Which led to the role that would bring him the success that had so long eluded him—that of “The Most Interesting Man in the World.”

A memoir told through a series of adventures and the lessons he’s learned and wants to pass on, Stay Interesting is a truly daring and bold tale, and a manifesto about taking chances, not giving up, making courageous choices, and living a truly adventurous, and always interesting life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101986233
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/13/2017
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 3.10(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Goldsmith grew up in the Bronx, trained in theater in New York City, then moved to Los Angeles. After decades in Hollywood and many adventures, he moved to a farm in Vermont, where he now lives with his wife and two dogs.

Read an Excerpt

Don't Get Left Behind
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Stay Interesting"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Jonathan Goldsmith.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Act I

Don't Get Left Behind 9

Your Body Can Do Anything You Put Your Mind To 13

There Are All Different Kinds of Heroes 17

You Are Who You Know 21

Cultivate Eccentric Influences 27

Know Your Roots 31

Adventure Is What You Make of It 35

The Longer It Waits, the More the Truth Hurts 39

Your Most Prized Possessions Shouldn't Be Possessions 43

Every Challenge Is a Chance to Build Your Strength 45

What's in a Name Matters Less Than What's in the One Who's Named 47

Sometimes, You Gotta Believe in Magic 51

Consider Where the Joke That Goes Too Far Might Take You 55

Just Because You Fight Fair Doesn't Mean the World Will Too 59

Know When to Make an Exit 63

Never Let School Get in the Way of Your Education 73

Some Rites of Passage Aren't Right at All 77

If Being You Isn't Working, Be Someone Else 83

Flexibility Isn't Just for Gymnasts 85

Don't Be Overconfident If You're Going to Underdeliver 89

Put All Your Baggage to Good Use 93

Hunger Is the Best Chef 97

Play Nice with Others 99

Don't Put It in Writing 103

Sometimes, Opportunity Knocking Sounds a Lot Like Bad Tennis 109

Act II

The Best Time to Go for Broke Is When You're Already Broke 121

If at First You Don't Succeed, Get Used to It 127

Never Make It Final 129

Even the Lowliest Job Can Lead to Another Job 133

Steal Nothing but Hearts 143

When Life Puts You Low, Start Climbing 149

If You Can't Move On, at Least You Can Move 161

The Only Way to Get Experience Is to Have Experiences 171

Allow Yourself a Very Wide Margin of Error 175

It's Better to Die Onstage Than to Not Get Onstage at All 181

If You Want Something Done Right, Do It Yourself 185

Your Greatest Teacher Won't Be Found in School 187

Fortune Favors the Bold and the Brash 195

Let It All Hang Out 199

Quality, Not Quantity. But, Also, Quantity 203

Three's Company, a Freeway's a Crowd 207

There's One Thing That Never Gets Old … 213

People Are Paying Attention to Whether You're Paying Attention 217

Between Good Friends, "Call Me Anytime" Means Just That 221

Act III

Everyone Needs to Be Haunted Once in Their Life 231

Not All Good Guys Are Good 247

Some Good Guys Are Just Good 257

Some Bad Guys Are Also Good Guys 261

Be Happy with What You Have 265

The Only Thing You Can't Make More of Is Time 281

Finale

Epilogue 295

Acknowledgments 301

Editorial Reviews

05/15/2017
As is made evident by this charming memoir, actor Goldsmith could very well have lived the life of the character who made him famous: the “Most Interesting Man in the World” of Dos Equis beer commercials. Goldsmith’s fateful audition to be a beer pitchman merely provides the framework for this collection of more than 50 anecdotes. He concocted an escape from boarding school as a teen; was friends with Hollywood notables (Shelley Winters, Dustin Hoffman, Warren Beatty, Elia Kazan); saved a man on a frozen mountain; and was shipwrecked on a remote island. What makes his narrative stand out from other Hollywood memoirs is a curiosity and vulnerability that underscores nearly eight decades of ups and downs. Some tales soar, and a few drag. Goldsmith’s writing is straightforward, and he demonstrates that one doesn’t become interesting by being a braggart, but by being open to the world and all the people in it. (June)

Publishers Weekly

2017-04-12
The actor who played "the most interesting man in the world" is more interesting than you might have anticipated.Goldsmith's star turn came late in his career, in his late 60s, when, "living like a hobo," he was called to audition for a Dos Equis beer campaign. He was dubious about how "a Jewish guy from the Bronx" could be a pitchman for a Mexican beer, but he was not exactly swimming in competing offers. "They want a Hemingway kind of guy," his agent told him; they also wanted storytelling improvisation at the audition, asking only that it end with the line, "And that's how I arm-wrestled Fidel Castro." Goldsmith's memoir reads like a collection of tall tales, though the author insists they are true, and it suggests that he spent his whole life preparing to audition for the role he would never have imagined. The spirit of adventure channels Hemingway, while the tone (of the commercials as well) owes more to Fernando Lamas, or "Fern, as I came to know him," who served as a mentor of masculinity for the younger actor. The adventures extend to the bedroom, where his lovers included the semifamous (Tina Louise), the anonymous, and the pseudonymous—e.g., "Wind Nymph." With a flair for name-dropping, Goldsmith recalls his rivalry with "Dusty" Hoffman, with whom he often competed for parts and to whom he prophesied, "I'm going make it and you're not." (Oops! "Over the next forty years, I would have those words to eat.") The author has lived a colorful life, to be sure, and he relates it in anecdotal chapters of a couple of pages each, but no publisher would have been interested if a chance commercial break hadn't given him his breakthrough. In the wake of that, Michael Jordan asked to have a picture taken with him, and he was invited to Camp David as "a birthday surprise for President Barack Obama." A lightweight entertainment that demonstrates the old saw that life can truly be stranger than fiction.

Kirkus Reviews